Much of this country's energy needs are met with oil, both domestically produced and imported from foreign countries. Furthermore, oil is used as a raw material in many manufactured goods and materials, such as plastics.
Much of this oil is transported from place to place in tankers. Tankers are used to ship oil from Alaska to the continental United States. Tankers are also used, among other things, to ship oil between the Gulf, West and East coasts. In addition, the tankers are used to import oil from foreign countries.
Oil spills from tankers in and near ports have happened in the past and will likely continue in the future. Unlike tankers operating on the high seas, where they are subjected mainly to wind and wave forces, tankers operating in and around ports are subjected to high density shipping traffic, limited maneuvering room and natural hazards such as reefs, shifting bottoms, etc.
Oil spills near coastlines have grave environmental consequences, resulting in large scale wildlife kills, fouled beaches, estuaries and water bottoms. Oil spills also have grave economic consequences as evidenced by Exxon spending over one billion dollars to clean up after the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska.
It is plainly clear that the technology needed to effectively clean up an oil spill is sorely lacking. Containment booms and skimmers, even if deployed timely, are unable to contain a major spill. Surfactants merely make the problem disappear from view by causing the oil to sink to the bottom, where it interferes with bottom life. Microbes have recently proven satisfactory, but only on small portions of spills.
The most effective solution is to limit the amount of oil that is spilled into the water once a tanker's cargo tanks have been ruptured. Double hull construction is one way to limit oil spills. In tankers equipped will a double hull, the bottom and the sides of the tanker have two walls between the sea and the cargo. Although this construction makes it more difficult to breach the cargo tanks, a breach is still possible.